


etiquette

by artsyspikedhair



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autism, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Guilt, Judaism, Lowercase, Religious Discussion, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: maya wanted to escape the memories christmas left her, because not every christmas was spent with gimbo the elf. riley wanted to help maya, for reasons unknown even to herself.farkle wanted to figure who he was, and riley was willing to help.zay made a terrible mistake, and smackle is angry. nobody knows how they're going to salvage this friendship.





	

christmas was always a hard time for maya. she would normally start at her mother's house, and then escape to riley's when it got to be too much. they don't talk about the year she never made it to riley's. 

this year, maya wasn't starting at her mother's house. katy hart knows what a mess maya was, which is why they hold onto the distractions of throwing snowballs and gimbo the elf. 

but shawn didn't know, and maya- maya didn't want him to see her cry. she didn't want to talk about the night in the park, the night she met up with her delinquent friends and found a boy who didn't know the meaning of christmas- or the meaning of the word no.

riley was going to do her meddling, maya knew, but she was certain nothing would take her from that apartment, because deep down, riley wanted her there for christmas. but riey would make an effort, because she didn't know what happened the christmas they were eleven, and maya would put up with the nonsense, because she loved riley more than anything else. 

riley wanted maya to go home for christmas. she wanted maya to be with her family, her real family, not the matthews. she thought it would make maya happy, and she wanted maya to be happy. she always wanted maya to be happy, even at the detriment of her own happiness, and she didn't bother questioning why. 

riley has begun researching religion though, on her own time. she started doing it once she knew farkle's family secret, and found the research consuming. she learned about judaism for farkle, but she learned about christianity for herself. she learned about hebrew and knew farkle would love it. she learned the bible and found herself sickened and enthralled. a word captured her eye in her research: abombination. why did she want maya happy again? 

she found herself in the words of the screen, and so she would find more words, like "christian and queer aren't mutually exclusive" and "pansexual" and "the hebrews had six different genders" and suddenly the research was fascinating again. suddenly she found a word for why she loved maya and liked lucas. she was never telling anyone. 

riley talked her parents and brother into helping her help maya. but somewhere in act two, maya started crying. and maya went home before learning shawn's past. maya didn't say a word to riley about what happened until after christmas evening. 

but first, secret santa! farkle was surprised, but not offended by his gift. he was considering converting to judaism, despite his disbelief in god. he did his own research, even though he didn't know who he was. zay was offended. his gift was for nerds. but when farkle explained, he was happy. 

smackle- smackle threw the damned book across the room and ran out. 

"zay? why?" 

"that's so mean!" 

zay didn't know why he had chosen the gift. he thought- well, why wouldn't smackle want to learn how to be normal? if he had a choice, he'd want to be. but looking back on it, maybe it was mean. would he really want to change the girl who explained sex to him? would he really want to ruin farkle's girlfriend? 

he tried to apologized, ran out after her. she slapped him across the face. he deserved it. 

meanwhile, in topanga's, riley and maya talked. 

"so," maya started, "some secret santa, huh?" it was clear she hadn't slept the night before. she hadn't gone to riley's but that was expected. 

"maya, what happened?" riley was upset about everything. secret santa, maya's outburst, christmas was wrecked. some 2016 it was. "what happened last night?" 

"i-i guess you deserve to know. you chose an eleven year old maya to reinact, riley. what do you remember about that christmas?" 

"we made a snowman in central park on christmas adam, auggie puked on the tree- oh! you never came christmas eve. is this-" 

"i made the stupid decision to meet up with my ex-friends in central park. we vandalized the church, and then- there was a boy." she started crying again. 

"maya? are you okay?" riley touched her shoulder, and she flinched. 

"he ruined christmas for me. i spent that night in the hospital." 

"oh my god, maya. why didn't you ever tell me?" 

"you didn't know what rape was." and with that, riley and maya began the long, hard discussion about what maya needed from riley, and how the talk with shawn went. riley considered bringing up her research, but there was honestly no worse time to acknowledge her crush on maya than while maya was dealing with her massive revelation.

outside topanga's, smackle was crying. why did zay think she needed to be- be fixed? meanwhile zay began changing the book; he had grabbed it on his way out. he thought of all he loved about smackle. 

december 26th, he handed her the revised edition. "apology accepted." 

they had seven years to outgrow the awkwardness of this burgeoning friendship. farkle would be with them. 


End file.
